September 23, 2007: The Incredible Shrinking Kilogram

The official reference kilogram kept in Paris appears to be losing weight, relative to the supposedly-identical copies kept elsewhere in the world. Only about the weight of a fingerprint, so far . . . but who could be behind this? Is there an adventure hook here? Sure there is! What super-criminal, what shadowy consortium of illuminated manipulators, could stand to benefit from making everything in the world officially heavier? To start with, the gold in Fort Knox is now worth more . . . and all those dieters are that fraction of a kilogram chubbier. Relatively speaking . . .-- Steve Jackson